Following are several possible reasons that might cause the tools under the Comment tab in Foxit PDF Reader to be grayed
- Only the stand-alone Foxit PDF Editor or Foxit PDF Reader application itself is opened,don't have any PDF file opened within the Foxit application.
- PDF document is opened under protected view mode in Foxit PDF Editor or Foxit PDF Reader application.
- PDF document is PDF/A compliant file and is opened in PDF/A view mode in Foxit PDF Editor or Foxit PDF Reader application.
- PDF document has security restrictions and commenting is not allowed.
Solutions for the above mentioned situations:
Only the stand-alone Foxit PDF Editor or Foxit PDF Reader application itself is opened,don't have any PDF file opened within the Foxit application.
Solution:
All tools under the Comments will not be grayed out if you don’t have any PDF file opened in Foxit PDF Editor or Foxit PDF Reader. Please open a PDF file in Foxit PDF Editor or Foxit PDF Reader. before you choose to use comments related tools again.
PDF document is opened under protected view mode in Foxit PDF Editor or Foxit PDF Reader.
Solution:
PDF document is opened under protected view mode in Foxit PDF Editor or Foxit PDF Reader. Protected view mode is a read-only mode in which most functions are disabled to protect your computer from being harmed by files originated from potentially unsafe locations. The protected view feature is only available in V9.0.1 and its later versions.You could turn off Protected View mode in following two ways:
- Turn off protected view mode for current PDF file in the bubble pop-up
- Turn off Protected View Mode via Preferences
How to Turn off protected view mode for current PDF file in the bubble pop-up:
When you open a PDF file under protected view mode, a bubble message would appear at the upper right corner of the document area as shown below. Click on Enable All Features to turn off protected view mode temporarily for the PDF file opened in current tab.
In some cases, the notification messages in Foxit PDF Reader were set not to show the message which affects the next step under General tab in Preferences window. There would not be any bubble message appearing even when a PDF file is opened under protected mode. Then you should turn off protected view mode via Preferences.
How to turn off protected view mode via Preferences:
To set up your application to never open PDF document in protected view mode, please go to File > Preferences > Security, select Off under Protected View, click on OK to apply the change.
PDF document is PDF/A compliant file and is opened in PDF/A view mode in Foxit PDF Editor or Foxit PDF Reader
Solution:
The document is PDF/A compliant document and is opened in PDF/A view mode in Foxit PDF Editor or Foxit PDF Reader. You have to turn off the PDF/A view mode before you could add highlight in PDF file. Please click this article to know how to turn off PDF/A view mode.
PDF document has security restrictions and commenting is not allowed.
Solution:
The document has restrictions and commenting is not allowed. To check the document restrictions, navigate to File > Properties > Security.
Please contact with the author who send you the document to ask for a new version of PDF file without security settings before you could add comments in newly received PDF file.
